Presentation 10

Presentation 10

Men and women often entertain temptation because, they say, "We can see no harm in it". How many personal tragedies begin with those haunting words and none more so than those of our first parents?

Together Adam and Eve chose to disregard the command of God and to live independently of him. What was the harm in it? It was momentous not just for their personal histories but for the whole of the created order, and the whole of human history.

Introduction

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Ambition was one of Satan’s principal tools in the dynamics of successfully tempting Eve. He promised that taking the fruit would propel her to the top of the ladder, "You will be like God!“v5 But the awful reality was that it lulled mankind down into dreadful misery.

Its not insignificant that the term theologians use to describe this incident is “The fall of man”. As a result of disobedience man has not been enriched or ennobled, he been impoverished and debased.

Introduction

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Indeed the biblical record of the fall refutes one of the main planks of the developed Darwinian evolutionary theory, which teaches that man started at the bottom of the moral ladder and is gradually climbing upwards – he is becoming more human more morally upright!

The fact of the matter is that he started at the top and had a great fall! We need to examine the effects of that fall and see how it affected man himself. Secondly, we need to note how it radically altered his relationship with God. Finally, we will discover how it marred the human fellowship, which had been created for his enjoyment.

Introduction

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The first effect of disobedience is recorded in v7, "Their eyes were opened and they realised that they were naked." In what sense were their eyes opened? The eyes of their consciences were opened to see that they had lost something of great value. God created man in his image, to reflect in his being certain things that were true about God. And it was this ‘image’ that distinguished him from the beasts of the field and formed the basis of his dignity. That image we have already identified as moral integrity, rationality, creativity, dominion and community all of which were badly marred by the fall.

Theologians describe this as ‘total depravity’. Not that man is as bad as he can be but that every area of his life that was designed to mirror God has been vandalised..

The Inward Relationship

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In a film the principal character woke up after an operation and discovered, when he looked in the mirror, that he had a face which he did not recognise. The man was terrified, he went through the most awful identity crisis this was not the man he knew or remembered.

Now similarly, our first parents went through an identity crisis but of far greater magnitude. Not that their physical features had changed but the awful realisation dawned upon them that the original wholeness they had once enjoyed, the mirror which reflected the righteousness of God had been shattered..

The Inward Relationship

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In addition they experienced a whole series of feelings, which were completely new to them. Their human psychology was flooded by a succession of tidal waves, as shame, guilt and paralysing fear crashed down upon them. Gone was the harmony, the poise and the self acceptance, which they'd hitherto enjoyed. Man had cut himself adrift from God and as a result had lost his sense of identity.

We begin to witness the disintegration of man as God intended him to be. There were like Humpty Dumpty, the nursery rhyme character, who had a disastrous and damaging fall and neither he nor anyone else could put the pieces together again.

The Inward Relationship

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We don’t have to look very far in today’s society to see continuing evidence of the fall. We find a lack of moral integrity and are confronted by man's inner restlessness, his alienation, and uncertainty. He speaks of his fear of life, his fear of death and the shame of his brokenness. Man finds himself set adrift from that which gives him value, purpose and identity.

The Inward Relationship

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How foolish it is to think that sin doesn't do any harm! Man's first sin was not only self destructive, it destroyed his relationship with God. We read in v8 "that when he heard the sound of the Lord walking in the Garden he hid from the Lord." Why did Adam and Eve want to hide? Why did the One who had been their friend and with whom they had once enjoyed intimate confident communion fill their hearts with TERROR? God had said, "On the day that you eat of the tree you shall surely die". What kind of death was God speaking of? Not merely physical death but a spiritual death, separation, an estrangement from God.

The Godward Relationship

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Adam and Eve were no longer alive to God. Their sin had separated them. Their guilt drove them from God. Guilty man was conscious that he could no longer stand with confidence before God’s searching gaze. In the words of the hymn: Eternal light eternal light, How pure the soul must be When placed within thy searching sight It shrinks not but with calm delight, Can live and look on thee.

Adam and Eve attempted to hide from God. A pretty futile exercise! Children sometimes put their hands over their eyes and say, "You cant see me". The assumption being that if they tried hard enough not to look at you, then they in turn would not be seen!

The Godward Relationship

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But we can't hide from God! The fact that we try is evidence of our guilt. Man’s conscience doesn’t bring him to God, only the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit can do that. Adam and Eve’s conscience drove them from God. Why do people make so many excuses for not coming to church? Is it because they feel uncomfortable in the presence of God and his searching Word and they want to hide.

A young man attending church sat behind a pillar hoping that somehow God's word would not get round the pillar to disturb him! Peter’s response to Jesus after the miraculous haul of fish, was, "Lord depart from me for I am a sinful man“ Lk.5.8

The Godward Relationship

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Into that situation God came in search of man. Wonderful! Man's response to his guilt is to try to cover it up and put as much distance between himself and God as he could. No attempt is made to take the first step back to God. But God came looking, calling out, "Where are you” – what condescension! It wasn’t the voice of a policeman but of unconditional divine love.

God’s question drives home the fact of man’s estrangement. God's main concern is not what ‘place are you in’ but what ‘condition are you in’. It is the human condition which is of utmost concern to God.

The Godward Relationship

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God still comes to us today and asks, "where are you?" He asks, "How are things between us? Are you separated from me because of your sin?" He asks these questions not to embarrass us, but out kindness. He longs to restore us to a right relationship with himself. Jesus said, “I have come to seek and to save those who are lost” Lk. 19.10. ‘Where are you?’ is a question God puts to the non-Christian and the backslider. Why? Not in order that we might provide him with information he already possesses but in order to bring us to the place where we humble our hearts and confess our rebellion.

The Godward Relationship

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How refreshing it would have been, had Adam come to God with a broken heart and said "I have sinned!" and if Eve had stood at his side and confessed, "Instead of being a helpmeet I contributed to Adam’s downfall, I too have sinned". There is no evidence of humility or brokenness. Instead, they engage in bitter recrimination deflecting God's searchlight from their own sinful hearts.

Adam first blames Eve before implicating God saying, "And it was you who gave her to me“ v12ff. Eve likewise says, "Don't blame me it was the serpents fault." Someone has said, "Sin is a child that nobody wants to own." Are we surprised that God gets the blame of every misery in the world, while man takes credit for all the good.

The Outward Relationship

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Do you see how the fall has damaged human relationships? There is finger pointing, recrimination, and a shifting of responsibility. We have witnessed the disintegration of a once perfectly harmonious relationship. It is now marked by distrust. Adam and Eve’s rebellion did not bring them closer together but drove them further apart. They displaced God from the centre of their lives, but their complicity did not make them close buddies. It had the reverse effect. C.S. Lewis in his book ‘The Great Divorce’ describes hell as a community of evil in which individuals move further and further away from one another.

The Outward Relationship

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God's creative purpose for marriage was undermined. The woman, who was intended to be man's encourager had become his temptress. Adam by blaming Eve for his sin clearly wanted a scapegoat but was this a good example of spiritual leadership? They end up by discouraging one another and drawing each other away from God. Do those of us who are married discourage or encourage our partners with reference to God? Are our conversations positive or negative, when it comes to matters like, attending worship, biblical morality, and Christian witness? Does God see us as those, who help or hinder our partner’s spiritual development?

The Outward Relationship

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Our first parents asked the question "what's the harm in yielding to a little bit of temptation?” It had devastating consequences. We can only rightly understand the tragedy of man’s fall, when we begin to understand, what he was made to be and recognise all that he has lost. The great news that comes out of this tragedy is that God pursues man in his lostness.

If God’s question to Adam and Eve, ‘where are you’ convinces us of our lostness, then Christ’s ministry reminds us that there is way back to God. Central toThis is the death that he died. Jesus said,

‘I am the way the truth and the life no man comes to the father but by me.’ Jn. 14.6.

Conclusion

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If the fall caused the disintegration of man in his inward, outward and upward relationships, then Christ’s death reverses those effects. It reintegrates our humanity, heals our personal relationships and reconciles us to God. ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself’ 2 Cor.5.19. Jesus calls to us in our lostness to follow him. He does not drag us after him but gives us the dignity of choice. Do you choose to go with this man?

Conclusion

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